I thought stuff like that WAS illegal when it uses real money, as it becomes REAL gambling... which EA presumably isn't licensed to do in most states, and being a US company, government could actually go after them for it.

I talked with Jason Attard (Senior Game Balance Designer) about our plans for endgame armor appearances as well as appearances that will be available in the Cartel Market.

He said that we definitely intend to continue releasing new armor appearances for players doing endgame content. Explosive Conflict and Terror from Beyond were always intended to share the same appearance, just as Eternity Vault and Karagga’s Palace do, and our next Operation will feature a new appearance tier. We have no plans to stop the creation of appearances for endgame content.

The first season of Cartel packs will draw heavily on preexisting armor appearances that haven’t been used for player-wearable equipment thus far. They’ll include some new models, but we did not draw on endgame content appearances for them.

Short version:

.......We're making players pay to gamble for getting not new freshly made gear but existing one.

I thought stuff like that WAS illegal when it uses real money, as it becomes REAL gambling... which EA presumably isn't licensed to do in most states, and being a US company, government could actually go after them for it.

Agreed this should be illegal; at most you should be able to loot the boxes, see what item is inside and then decide wether or not to pay.

The "Dread Guard" gear has existed on datamining sites like Torhead since 1.2 (Explosive Conflict) came out. It was called "Denova" gear. "Denova" gear gives identical stats to "Dread Guard" gear. Its pretty obvious that "Denova" gear was originally meant for Nightmare EC, just look at the name. NEC never came out though, so you just changed the name and moved it to HMTFB instead.

Could EC and TFB have "always intended to share the same appearance"? I guess. The gear we got though was intended for Nightmare EC.

Also, EV and KP gear shares appearance because they both drop the same set, Rakata. There is no precedent for two tiers of gear from different Ops looking identical.

I honestly don't know what was so hard to understand about that explanation. KP and EV are two instances that share the same loot looks... EC and TFB are two instances that share the same loot looks. They just explained that they're updating art tied to pairs of raids and, ironically enough, EC and TFB have even more of a tie together than KP and EV did since they essentially share a continuous story.

You are going to get something. That something can be argued to be worth exactly the same as every other something that you might get. It's all just pixels.

This is no different than putting a quarter into a gumball machine. Whether you wanted the red gum and got blue, or you wanted the sticker of your favorite team and got one that you have barely heard of, you got what your quarter said you would get.

Heck, it's like going to the movies... Do you know what you are going to get? The correct answer here is 'a movie', not 'a 2 hour+ long movie' or 'a movie that I will really like'.

These boxes are the same.
You are never going to open one up and get nothing.

You will get gear. Maybe it will be gear that you wanted, maybe it wil be useless to you. But it will be gear, and if that's all that they promise, there is no gambling.

The presence of chance does not automatically make something gambling.

You are going to get something. That something can be argued to be worth exactly the same as every other something that you might get. It's all just pixels.

This is no different than putting a quarter into a gumball machine. Whether you wanted the red gum and got blue, or you wanted the sticker of your favorite team and got one that you have barely heard of, you got what your quarter said you would get.

Heck, it's like going to the movies... Do you know what you are going to get? The correct answer here is 'a movie', not 'a 2 hour+ long movie' or 'a movie that I will really like'.

These boxes are the same.
You are never going to open one up and get nothing.

You will get gear. Maybe it will be gear that you wanted, maybe it wil be useless to you. But it will be gear, and if that's all that they promise, there is no gambling.

The presence of chance does not automatically make something gambling.

No, I want to buy a particular item not a gambling box. That's assuming I still play this game when it goes f2p. If they decided to use these gambling boxes I might as well not buy any. I hate gambling since I equate gambling with throwing away money, unless the odds are in my favor.

As for the developer's reply confirm my suspicions that EA/BW is planning to use all the beta orange gear they didn't release into the cash shop.

The "Dread Guard" gear has existed on datamining sites like Torhead since 1.2 (Explosive Conflict) came out. It was called "Denova" gear. "Denova" gear gives identical stats to "Dread Guard" gear. Its pretty obvious that "Denova" gear was originally meant for Nightmare EC, just look at the name. NEC never came out though, so you just changed the name and moved it to HMTFB instead.

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The statements and opinions expressed on these websites are solely those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views, nor are they endorsed by Bioware, LucasArts, and its licensors do not guarantee the accuracy of, and are in no way responsible for any content on these websites.